Seymour News

SPIN is a dance party like no other.

I had the pleasure of being invited to attend the premiere of The Great Canadian Theatre Company's production of Kate Hennig's The Virgin Trial, directed by Eric Coates. Although this production is the sequel to Hennig's The Last Wife, the play stands on its own so no prior knowledge is needed. The play is set in modern times, but the characters and events are from the Tudor era. English history buffs will particularly enjoy the story as it is partially based on factual events with some speculation thrown in, which makes for a fascinating crime drama.

A second Sydney performance has been added to meet demand for UK comedy royalty David Baddiel's Olivier-nominated one-man stage show My Family: Not The Sitcom. Frontier Comedy are thrilled to announce that David will perform a second Seymour Centre show today 15 September.

American Blues Theater announces encore performance run of BUDDY - The Buddy Holly Story, written by Alan Janes, directed by Lili-Anne Brown, with musical direction by Ensemble Member Michael Mahler. BUDDY - The Buddy Holly Story will close as planned on May 26, 2018 and reopen June 29 - September 15, 2018 at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago. Tickets will be on sale for the encore run on May 15, 2018.

BroadwayWorld has a first look at the Drury Lane's Little Shop of Horrors, with music by Alan Menken and book by Howard Ashman and direction and choreography by Scott Calcagno with music direction by Roberta Duchak. Little Shop of Horrors runs through October 28, 2018, at Drury Lane Theatre, 100 Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace. 

Following two weeks of sold out previews, The Bloody Deed of 1857 opens tonight at the landmark Colonnade Row for an open ended run. The new play is based on the actual murder of Dr. Harvey Burdell on January 30, 1857 on nearby Bond Street. The scandalous crime captivated the city, filling the columns of every newspaper for months because all evidence pointed at his rejected lover, a devoted mother and conniving widow named Emma Cunningham. But the jury didn't believe a woman could commit such a violent act. Officially, the case remains unsolved, leaving restless ghosts behind to sort through the truth for eternity.

Wasatch Theatre Company proudly presents the regional premiere of Clare Barron's You Got Older, a quirky dark comedy about a young woman following the thorny path to adulthood - right over a cliff.

After a sold-out workshop run in March, Paranormal History Productions returns to Colonnade Row with an official limited run of The Bloody Deed of 1857 for the autumn season. The immersive 90 minute play is an adaptation of news accounts which reported the breathless daily developments about a sensational murder that took place on nearby Bond Street. Elise Gainer, author of Ghosts and Murders of Manhattan, credits the nearby Merchant's House Museum with the idea to turn this true-life murder into a play. The work was selected as the featured piece in the Tectonic Theatre Project's Advanced Moment Work Master Class with Moises Kaufman in May 2017. Ken Davenport, the veteran Broadway producer, consulted on this unique immersive experience including script and overall project development.

Drury Lane presents Little Shop of Horrors, with music by Alan Menken and book by Howard Ashman and direction and choreography by Scott Calcagno with music direction by Roberta Duchak. Little Shop of Horrors runs September 6 - October 28, 2018, at Drury Lane Theatre, 100 Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace. The press opening is Thursday, September 13 at 8:00 p.m.

In collaboration with PBS' 'Great Performances' series, the Recording Academy presents 'GRAMMY Salute To Music Legends®', the third annual all-star concert offering a primetime spotlight for the Academy's 2018 Special Merit Awards recipients. The celebration and tribute concert feature rare performances by honorees and never-before-seen renditions of their classic songs by those they've inspired. Recorded in July at Los Angeles' Dolby Theatre, the event premieres nationwide Friday, October 5 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings) and will be available to stream the following day via pbs.org/gperf and PBS apps.

Soho Rep. announces its 2018-2019 season, with two world premieres that demonstrate the small but flexible space's 'indispensible' (New York Magazine) presence as 'a 70-seat house filled with big ideas' (Hilton Als, The New Yorker). Through singular and irreverent stylistic approaches, Kate Tarker's Thunderbodies,directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz (October 16-November 18, 2018), and Christopher Chen's Passage, directed by Saheem Ali (April 23-May 26, 2019),interrogate the staggering ramifications of U.S and global imperialism.

Entries open today to submit to the College Television Awards. View the full Awards timeline below! The 39th College Television Awards competition has evolved and features redefined categories, new deadlines and an immersive industry experience in Los Angeles. College Television nominees and winners will become part of the Television Academy Foundation's alumni family and have the opportunity to participate in year-round networking opportunities and events.

MONROE, a world premiere production, directed by Lara Toner Haddock, is the latest play by Lisa B. Thompson. The script is a heart warming and funny look at a Southern family. What makes it a remarkable evening of theatre is that it also shows how racial terror affects the minds and lives of these African Americans and their great strength that allows them to maintain their faith in a better tomorrow.Thompson has created some wonderful characters in this new play and shows that she has a deft hand at creating dialogue that leaps off the page. There's great wit here as well as heart. The scenes between the three women in the cast are absolutely delightful and the three actresses wring every possible laugh out of the audience with ease. MONROE reveals Thompson be a writer of great range as this new work is worlds away from her award winning play Underground, which won the 2017 Austin Critics' Table David Mark Cohen New Play Award.

COCKROACH is the latest marvelous mix of entertainment and education to come from Writer and Director Melita Rowston. 

Aleshea Harris' award winning play, Is God Is will be adapted for the screen by Scott Rudin and A24, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Harris will adapt her own work for the screen.

Playwright Lynn Nottage's 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning SWEAT, her raw take on the intertwining issues affecting a close-knit group of Reading, Pennsylvania townsfolk, has just opened at the Mark Taper Forum. Portraying Cynthia, the inescapable lightning rod in SWEAT's volatile scenario, Nottage stalwart Portia brings a human face to a multiple of 'faceless' generalized preconceptions. Portia gave us her thoughts on working with Lynn Nottage, Phylicia Rashad and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Cockroach performs at Sydney Fringe 2018, 6-8 September at Seymour Centre.

The USTA today announced that singer songwriter, Deborah Cox and Tony-nominated singer, Brandon Victor Dixon will perform "America the Beautiful" respectively prior to the women's and men's US Open Finals on Saturday, September 8th and Sunday, September 9th. In addition, Cox will perform "I'm Every Woman" and Dixon will be sing "We Are the Champions" as a celebration of the female and male champions of the past 50 years of the US Open in Flushing, NY.